INDIE AUTHORS AND THE IMPORTANCE OF REVIEWS

NEW REVIEWS

New reviews are essential for indie authors striving to remain relevant after the excitement of the launch is over. Fresh reviews can keep one's name in the spotlight through social media and serve as an easy topic for newsletters to subscribers—Hey, look! Another five star review! Indies need to constantly remind the public they're still out there writing, producing, and getting attention.

With my first book, a travel memoir about life in Mexico,  I simply put out a press release to gain exposure. I published the book in 2003, a life time away now in how books are marketed. Back then I bought a copy of Writers Market, identified all magazines and newspapers that might run a review of the book, and mailed out copies to anyone interested.

OLD SCHOOL

A handful grabbed the bait. Most reviews were published soon after the launch. Basically, along with a newsletter to friends, I sold directly to bookstores and at book fairs. That was it. Afterwards, the book got some attention through Mexico websites as I'd pen a travel article here or there. Always included at the end was a sentence about my book and where to find it. And when Amazon got going, I listed it.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY AUTHOR COUNT

Getting noticed isn't easy. Publishers Weekly reported there were 1.6 million self-published books in print in 2018. Even authors who've landed traditional deals say they must do their own leg work if they want to stay relevant. Publishers allow six week's marketing time for new books. Then they pull the budget.

REVIEW TYPES

The best way for indie authors to stay in the limelight is by getting book reviews, and there are various types: Reader reviews on Amazon or Good Reads, book blogger reviews, those prized reviews in newspapers, magazines or websites, and paid reviews like those on Kirkus.

One way to encourage readers to add a review on Amazon or Good Reads is to put a suggestion at the end of the book, requesting a short review. I make it easy for them by placing a link directly to the review page to encourage them to take action. 

After a review's been published, I place a line or two of it on social media, in the hopes of encouraging new readers to take the plunge.

BOOK BLOGGERS AND MORE

Another way to gather reviews is to single out book bloggers in your genre. This is laborious and oftentimes not so fruitful. But the beauty of landing a book blogger's review is myriad: They have a healthy list of followers and their review is blasted out to the faithful. I've learned to cull book bloggers through google searches, books on bloggers (though they tend to be outdated), Twitter and Facebook. I've become friends with most of them, and when I launched book two in my Wheels Up Yucatán trilogy, they were happy to review it. 

My favorite review is one that appears in a publication, be it newspaper, magazine, or website. These are tough to land, but depending on the media outlet, can gain an author a great deal of attention. These require pitching the publication after making sure the fit is right. 

MANY USES

Reviews can also provide quotes used in back cover blurbs, social media posts, and in  newsletters. Landing them is a tough go but without a doggedly determined attempt on your part to gain the spotlight, your star will fade into oblivion. Look at it this way: If you've spent all those years knocking out your treasured prose, don't let it lose its luster without a fight.

THE WRITER'S ROAD TO TULUM TAKEDOWN

I always knew that Wheels Up—A Novel of Drugs, Cartels and Survival, would be a trilogy, documenting the life and adventures of Layla Navarro, sitting head of Mexico's most powerful cartel. Truth be told, the writing came fairly easily, and the characters and plot evolved well.

However easy the writing may have been, that was only the beginning of the self-publishing process. The rest can be quite daunting. Though the second time around was a little easier, it was still no cakewalk.

After finishing the manuscript, finding a good editor is key. Luckily, I hit it off with my editor, Jennifer Silva Redmond, from my first novel, and she came through again. Receiving criticism is part of a writer's life, so it's best to develop a thick skin. I gave myself a few days to let her ideas percolate, and then tackled what I could on a daily basis, folding in her changes. Usually, cutting words, sometimes paragraphs, at times entire chapters, is required to make the book a better read.

Did you know that different fiction genres have different suggested word counts? For my genre, thriller, the norm is seventy thousand words. Literary fiction can go quite a bit longer, but with thrillers, it's important to keep the story moving, and shorter tends to make a better read. In my first novel, I clocked in at an unwieldy ninety thousand words! Jennifer asked me to cut twenty thousand. I must admit I cried a little, thinking that one over, but after I slept on her suggestions, I got out my mental scalpel, and went to work.

Jennifer went over my changes a couple times. I sent it off to a proofreader, and then Jennifer had one more look. Next came sending the manuscript to a text formatter and a cover graphics designer. I was lucky to know fine artist Jill Wyatt Logan from Todos Santos, Mexico, and she allowed me (again) to use one of her incredible paintings for the cover. My graphics designer added the title and author name and the back cover blurb design.

From there, it was time to put everything together. And here's my cover reveal of Tulum Takedown. I hope you like it as much as I do. The book will be out the end of March. Please sign up for my newsletter through my website, www.jeaninekitchel.com, to receive info on the publication date. It will be available in e-book on Amazon for $3.99 and paperback $13.95.